“In the garden,” Helios repeated, still aghast, as he flew aside his sister through the skies of Equestria towards the Everfree Forest , “You propped up his statue… in the garden. Oh. And he’s in a different pose to when we defeated him, so I’m guessing he’s escaped at least once since being here. You’re telling me even after that you just… left him in the garden?”
Evening had come, Helios having even stopped briefly to let Luna raise her moon, but the conversation was not going nearly so well as Luna had hoped. Helios’ frame of mind seemed random, continually back-tracking or going off on tangents, and generally refusing to believe anything that Luna told him.
“We hath already been over this,” Luna’s voice boomed back at him, having nearly forgotten her former agitation thanks to the amount of talking Helios had been doing.
“Well the FIRST thing I’m doing when I’m in charge is putting that thing somewhere safer,” Helios huffed.
“Thou shalt NOT be ‘in charge’ my brother,” Luna responded, giving him an eye as she grew increasingly testy once again. She habitually glanced at him from time to time, expecting her estranged brother to charge back into her again at any moment.
“Oh please,” Helios rolled his eyes, “You can't stop me; you don’t even know how I got back to this world. By the way, I’d say we were at least a good few miles from Discord now, right? Soooo… think fast!”
And with that, he validated Luna’s paranoia, the night mare dodging by mere inches the blast of energy Helios suddenly hurled her way, which sailed some five hundred feet through the air before exploding in a brilliant display of fire. A second blast followed, aimed at where Luna ended up after her dodge, this one significantly more powerful, as if its precursor had been a mere feint.
“STOP THIS!” Luna cried out, managing to deflect the attack by throwing out her own energy against it, causing the blast to curve around before directing it back towards Helios, “And we know fair well from whence thou comes!”
The ball of energy came to a stop between them as each alicorn shoved more and more energy into trying to force it closer to the other. It swirled with a mix of flames and dark energy, whipping at the surrounding air and lighting the forest around them with an intense glow.
“Don’t be stupid,” Helios grinned back at her, clearly taking Luna’s words as yet another ruse, his teeth beginning to grit as he strained to hold the energy back himself, now.
“Not so! For our scholars hath traced the residue of your unicorn minion’s teleportation spell before it faded, and from thence divined her destination,” Luna responded as she strained in kind, her eyes growing slightly wider at how the ball between them was growing, “We delayed only to question the prisoners, but shalt tarry no further.”
“What.” Helios stated flatly, surprise allowing the reverse tug-of-war to slip a little into Luna’s favor before he rallied himself, “All right, I have to admit that’s a bit clever. You know what, Luna? I think I might believe you marginally more than I did before; perhaps you really are trying to protect your ponies, but you’re still fighting for HER and that makes you an enemy.”
Helios darted his eyes back and forth a few times, then suddenly grinned widely, shifting the ball of energy just slightly to the side and then actually pulling it instead of continuing to try to drive it backwards against Luna. The result was that the ball of death shot off at tremendous speed, angled downward at the forest floor. More importantly, towards a small shack in a clearing that from the lights that were on inside looked to be inhabited.
“Yeah, yeah I know,” Helios conceded as he watched the crackling sphere arc down upon the hut and its unsuspecting resident, “That was a bit stereotypically villainous of me, but I have faith that you’ll take the time to save whoever lives down there instead of chasing after me, dear sister.” And with those words, Helios was gone in another flash of energy.
Luna’s eyes grew all the wider as she realized what her brother had done. She had no time to realign her defense, nor time to push the ball of energy off course. There was only one thing she could do in the limited amount of time that he had given her, a fact of which Helios was certainly aware. Selflessly, the alicorn teleported herself directly into the path of the attack, spreading her wings and sending all the power she had into the ball to slow down its descent, spreading a shield over the hermit’s meager home in the process.
The energy struck with an explosive force that shook the forest around her, Luna’s enchanted armor literally disintegrating as it tried to shield her from the waves of magical energy surging against her. Nearby trees were flattened against the ground, gouts of flame and dark energy shooting outwards as she deflected them. Just as Helios had suspected she would, Luna easily shielded the home from any serious damage, but the strain to herself was something else entirely. As the energy finally dissipated, Luna felt herself growing dizzy, collapsing to the ground.
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Of all the things they expected to encounter upon arrival, an immediate attack from the minions of the one who just set them free was probably the last. Apparently, plans had changed during the weeks between when Helios had sent them and the time of their arrival. In Helios’ mind at least, they had gone from being bystanders to a direct threat; a threat that had to be dealt with immediately. That was the bad news.
The good news? When the heroes arrived, Helios had left on his way to find Firefly and Surprise, so would be bit too busy to help his minions slaughter them personally.
The six figures had just appeared out of the swirling blue time vortex, all but Pinkie Pie landing on all fours rather neatly. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, fell rather heavily to the ground, already limp, and a rather less vibrant pink than usual.
“Huh,” Gilda was the first to notice that Pinkie had collapsed, leaning down and making a brief attempt to stand her up. “Hey I think Pinkie bit it during transit guys, she’s not breathing.”
“What?” the others stated in near-unison, which of course completely distracted them from the fact that they were surrounded by enemies that were about to attack.
“Quick Gilda, give her muzzle to muzzle!” Ditzy hovered slightly higher into the air, trying to look over Gilda’s shoulder.
“I don’t think that will work with my beak Ditz’,” Gilda replied, watching Pinkie flop back down onto the ground when released, slumping, eyes rolled back and tongue lolling out.
Trixie reared up, hooves over her head. “Watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful Tri-“
“Please do not hit my sister with lightning, Trixie,” Inkie instructed as she shoved the other pony aside, sending her skidding a few feet across the ground. Then, still calm as ever though her face was one of grave concern, she added pre-emptively, “And Blinkie, please do not involve explosives, either.”
“I totally wasn’t going to!” Blinkie shot back, but all the same leaned down over her sister.
Blinkie and Inkie both kneeled down to Pinkie Pie, rolling their sister over to her back, and carefully began to try resuscitating her as best they knew how, Inkie breathing for her as Blinkie very carefully performed chest compressions. So distracted were they with concern for their sister, that neither noticed the telekinetically propelled knives that whizzed over their heads just as they had leaned down.
Ditzy was the first one to notice something amiss, catching one of the two knives in both hooves no less, and rolling herself about midair from the force of doing so. She was looking over it curiously as if wondering where it came from when much to her surprise the knife glowed again, trying to lunge at her face as she held it back with both forehooves.
“Hey everypony, I think we’re being attacked by floaty knives!” Ditzy helpfully announced to her team members.
Trixie eyed Ditzy’s knife, her own horn glowing as she took ahold of the other thrown blade before it hit somepony else, “Trixie agrees with the Wall-Eyed One. Something is not right.”
“I said NOW!” a shout came from one side of the clearing as Twilight Wish quickly became impatient with her own comrades' inability to follow a cue. With that, a half dozen more knives soared towards the group, pointy ends brandished threateningly towards them and clearly not joking around.
“I’m getting to it, be patient,” called down Sparkler, still situated above the gate to the ruins, above and behind where Twilight Wish had been stationed. She apparently had spent all this time trying to find which of the stones in her pile was the least shiny, not wanting to ruin one of the good ones that she might be able to keep. Finally locating one with a nasty crack in it, she loaded it into the cannon and launched it towards the heroes.
For Applejack’s part, she had spent most of the time since Wish’s first shout trying to successfully kick the log trap into motion, having missed several times with her hind hoof already. Frustrated, she moved herself about to get an easier angle and kicked at the trigger again, finally striking it squarely with one hind hoof and smiling to herself.
The apple pony’s satisfaction with her accomplishment didn’t last long, quickly realizing that her change of position had put her into the path of the trap herself. The logs did roll towards the heroes, surely enough, but Applejack came with them, screaming in blind panic as she ended up running atop the foremost log and trying desperately not to fall off.
Unfortunately for Posey, her job was equally prone to danger, as it consisted of trying to throw a net over the fliers of the bunch. At first she tried to get to Ditzy, but hesitated too long and didn’t reach her before she got too far off the ground. When Ditzy started fighting with a knife and slinging it around as she spun, it made Posey even less sure about approaching her.
In the end, Posey went for Gilda, who unfortunately was a lot taller than her. The yellow earth pony stood up on her hind legs, reached as far as she could, and let out an adorable squeak as she jumped and tried to drape the net over the griffon’s head the best she could. This ended up with the net being barely over Gilda’s head, draped down one side of her body in a position that might at the very worst present her with a minor inconvenience.
Ditzy saw more knives coming her way, her eyes growing wide, releasing the first knife she had to grab hold of the second. The first one flew outward with the force of its struggle, slamming into a nearby tree with an audible 'sproing' noise. The second knife was lost in a similar manner shortly after, but this one Ditzy had seemingly unintentional better-aim with, sending it flying towards Twilight, who had to jump out of the way and in the process almost lost her concentration on her other blades.
Trixie stood up, actually cackling madly with the realization that they had been attacked, “The Twilight Wish will rue the day that she challenged the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
Rather than waste time trying to catch all the knives that Twilight Wish had thrown, Trixie took a more roundabout approach. Slamming her hooves on the ground, she sent a shiver of magic towards Twilight, a jet of earth suddenly emerging directly in front of the other unicorn to block her line of sight to the knives that she had been controlling. The blades faltered in their path before all fell harmlessly to the ground.
Gilda, feeling the net half flop over her, drew her eyes around to peer at the timid looking earth pony that had thrown it onto her. Her eyes narrowed, glaring down at the smaller pony, reaching a single claw out to take hold of Posey’s head, half lifting her off the ground to bring her eye-to-eye.
“Um,” Posey wriggled all fours as she was picked up, her eyes going wide, “I don’t suppose you’d mind falling down for a bit, so that it looks like I’m doing well?”
Gilda would have been nailed by the rock from Sparkler’s cannon at that point, had the still spinning Ditzy not reached out to take hold of it on its way, spinning twice more before launching it back in Twilight and Sparkler’s direction. Ditzy was having a great time, apparently, possibly not even realizing that they were fighting, if her giggling was anything to go by.
“What are you laughing at?” screamed Pinkie’s angry voice, her first words as she suddenly snapped awake.
Inkie drew back as the pink pony started to gag and cough after her words, indicating that she was in fact breathing again, only to spot the logs coming up behind her. She braced her fore-hooves on the ground, snapping both hind hooves backwards towards the log. She struck the first one in the rush, cracks and shivers splintering through it as the area she kicked practically disintegrated from the force of the blow.
The remainder of the first shattering log turned perpendicular to the others, the rest crashing to a stop behind it as its shattered end gouged into the ground ahead. The three Pie sisters were tossed forward, rolling several feet, but the trap didn’t reach the rest of the heroes and the three it had reached didn’t look like they’d suffer more than light bruising. Applejack was less fortunate, flying off the logs as they came to the sudden stop, slamming face-first into the ground and sliding to a stop directly in front of Trixie.
Trixie coughed at the cloud of dust that sprang up around her from Applejack’s skidding through the dirt. Disappointed that the clumsy attacker had spoiled her grand monologue, she placed a forehoof on the grounded pony’s head, sending a jolt of magical energy through her that made her let out a squeal of agony. Luckily for Applejack, Trixie wasn’t a killer, and the earth pony found herself falling safely into unconsciousness. All in all, Trixie had probably done her a favor and saved her from herself.
Twilight Wish, determined to not let the failing ambush get any worse, stumbled up over the earth wall that Trixie’s magic had raised in front of her. She was just in time to take the rock that Ditzy had thrown back to the head with a sharp crack. The unicorn staggered, horn vibrating from the blow, and stumbled back down the opposite side of the earthen barrier once again.
Blinkie, now less worried about her sister’s condition, was quick to hurl herself into the fight. Pulling a single, round bomb from her saddlebag, she moved to light the thing, grinning gleefully. She probably didn’t have a great throwing arm, but that was quite beside the point. She tossed the bomb upwards, allowing their still whirling Ditzy-cannon to grab hold of it and fling it back towards Sparkler and Twilight. The bomb flew through the air, as luck would have it landing atop the hill and rolling neatly to join the pack of stones that Sparkler was using.
Posey, now near tears just from the glare from the larger griffon from whose claws she was dangling, started to struggle with all four legs, kicking futilely at Gilda to get away. Gilda responded by shrugging the rest of the net off, then moved both claws to Posey’s head and tossed her upwards. Ditzy, who was now on quite a roll, so to speak, instinctively grabbed hold of the earth pony and flung her as well.
“Hey guys wait I really can’t stop spinning now!” Ditzy called out pitifully, suddenly horrified that she had just thrown a living pony at their opponents.
Twilight Wish, just coming over the hill’s top again, found herself pummeled now by Posey, cursing loudly as she rolled back down the hill, thumping her head against the same rock that had smacked her before upon reaching the ground. Her scream pierced the air, although by this point it contained far more rage than it did pain.
It was to this chaos that Firefly and Surprise arrived, flying over the clearing about fifty feet above the tree tops. The two had been teleported out of Canterlot by Helios, but due to the hurriedness of said teleport they had not arrived precisely above the clearing where he had intended they appear. Finally making their way back towards the ruins, and thus the clearing, the two had come just in time to see their friends get kicked around by the arriving heroes in seemingly no time at all.
“We-we have to help them!” Firefly suddenly called out, taking a dive towards the clearing, aiming directly towards Ditzy, who she perceived to be the most martially skilled of the group after seeing her toss Posey like a ragdoll.
Surprise only began to cackle, seeming gleeful at the prospect of having a real knock-down drag out fight, at least one that wasn’t tilted too horribly against her like the last one. Unfortunately for her, she lacked any of her usual bludgeoning instruments, and so had to find one quickly. Spotting Sparkler at her pile of rocks, again taking too much time to try to pick out the one she would least miss, she dove in that direction with the intention of grabbing a few stones for herself.
There was another surprise however, that Surprise hadn’t counted on. Just as she was drawing towards the pile of rocks, Sparkler picked Blinkie's thrown bomb out from the pile, looking it over curiously for a moment before she very suddenly realized what it was. Her eyes grew suddenly quite large, looking about and trying to decide what to do with it.
Panicking, she very quickly attempted to load it into the cupcake cannon, but promptly fumbled it to send it rolling back into the pile. The fuse almost at its end, Sparkler gave up on this idea and instead simply tumbled off the front of the hill to avoid the explosion, throwing aside the cupcake cannon in the process as she fell off the front of the ruin and landed in front of the entrance below.
The cannon, as luck would once again have things, slammed right into Twilight Wish’s back as she was attempting once again to climb over the rock wall, sending her sprawling back down with another scream of frustration. Of course, then Blinkie’s bomb finally detonated.
The force of the explosion caused the front of the ruin to collapse downward while sending shards of rock and debris upwards and outwards. Twilight, Sparkler, and Posey found themselves buried in the collapsed hillside, bricks and dirt raining down on them as all three attempted to shield themselves with each other. Surprise managed to bank just in time to avoid any serious damage, but the force of the blast still made her spiral uncontrollably into ground between the earth wall that Trixie had made earlier and the heroes themselves.
The only one of the enemies that seemed to be having any luck at all was Firefly, who successfully slammed into Ditzy’s back as she attempted to knock the pony out of the air. Still spinning, Ditzy didn’t hit the ground as hard as she might have, but instead glanced across it at an angle and ended up barrel-rolling across the clearing until she slammed into Surprise, who had just barely managed to get back up to her own hooves once again.
“Get your hooves off her!” Gilda screamed with a surprising burst of rage upon seeing Ditzy attacked directly, springing into Firefly as the pegasus attempted to angle back up towards the sky.
The pegasus was quickly grounded by Gilda, who definitely had the advantage with grappling between her opposable claws and greater size. Firefly was slammed down onto the ground, belly against the dirt with Gilda’s hind knee in her back, both wings grabbed and twisted back at an angle that made Firefly squeal, terrified that Gilda might be about to relieve her of her wings.
Gilda would have, in fact, had she not paused briefly to think how little Ditzy would appreciate her tearing the wings off of any pegasus. Instead, Gilda let go of the wings and slammed her fist into the back of Firefly’s head, knocking the pony against the ground, cutting off her scream and her consciousness.
“Wait,” Blinkie paused, slowly looking around, stopping just short of lighting another explosive, “Did we really just kick that much flank?”
“Yes. Yes we did,” came Inkie’s bland response as she moved to pull Pinkie up to her hooves again.
Gilda moved herself over to help Ditzy up, casually shoving Surprise aside, who apparently didn’t feel like standing herself up and getting pummeled again. Ditzy smiled, immediately moving herself to Gilda’s back and hugging against her head, seeming quite happy about being retrieved by the griffon.
“Ha!” Trixie cackled out, madly, “Was there ever any doubt? The Great and Powerful Trixie and her fearless minions are unstoppable! Once we rescue the Twilight Sparkle, she will be forever forced to admit that Trixie is the greatest!”
“I said stop laughing!” as soon as Pinkie was stood up, she lunged at Trixie, but was still quite off balance so instead tripped over the unconscious Applejack and tumbled to the ground.
“NO!” came a voice suddenly from the collapsed hilltop, drawing all eyes back to wall of earth, half-collapsed itself and dotted with stone debris.
It was Twilight Wish, pulling herself weakly from the mess, eyes aglow with rage, hooves smoldering against the ground. Her re-emergence wasn’t quite as awesome as it could have been, as she then slid awkwardly down the earth wall, nearly falling flat on her snout before arriving at the base and stumbling several more steps forward. Her mane and tail were mushed, her eyes wide with insanity.
“I’m not finished with you yet!” Twilight took a deep breath, body shaking in rage, as her horn glowed. The glow of her horn was matched by a soft glow from the heart shaped amulet that still hung around her neck, the same one she had worn since the very first day when they had taken their captives from Ponyville.
“Give up!” cackled Trixie, ignoring Pinkie’s attempted tackle of her in favor of Twilight, “The Twilight Wish can never hope to defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie!”
“Well Pinkie said she was evil,” Inkie observed, “I see that she was right.”
“Wait what?” Blinkie opened her saddlebag again, just having shut it with the impression that she wouldn’t be needing more explosives, “Isn’t she dead yet? I’ll take care of this.”
“She’s probably about to take her final form,” Pinkie claimed, her tone full of venom, “I hate final forms!”
“I hate filling out forms too, but what does that have to do with anything?” Ditzy lifted up her head from where she was, still half-curled atop Gilda’s back.
“Um, guys,” Gilda moved to stand aside Trixie, “I think maybe it might be pose down time. She’s looking a bit… glowy.”
“I hate pose downs!” Pinkie complained from behind Gilda. Somehow in all this mess, no one had rightly noticed Pinkie’s behavior being different since she came to, though that statement did draw a few confused eyes her way.
“Shut up!” Twilight demanded, actually spitting with rage, “This is my monologue and I’m going to finish it!”
“Oh fine!” Trixie rolled her eyes, “Everypony into position while the Twilight Wish finishes her monologue. Then we shall make her pay for her lack of awesome!”
“I’m not finished with you yet!” Twilight Wish repeated herself, the glow from her heart necklace having spread across her entire form by this point as she stumbled forward another step, “You’ll never make it out of here alive! Now cower in fear as I demonstrate my true POWER!”
Gilda face-clawed, “This ham-to-ham combat is killing me.”
“I think it’s hilarious,” Blinkie grinned, pulling a long explosive charge from her saddlebag, this one in a metal casing with a timer to prime it on one end.
Twilight Wish’s body glowed brighter, the amulet around her neck suddenly alight with energy, a dizzyingly bright rainbow snaking out into mid-air. The energy from the release sent a gush of warm air as the beam lashed out, curling about as if initially confused about its target, then darted towards the group of heroes with an almost friendly twinkle of magic. It didn’t look like it was planning to do anything friendly to them, however.
“Taste the Rainbow of Light, evil-doers!” Despite her words, Twilight Wish looked almost surprised that the Rainbow was doing what she wanted it to, even when targeting other ponies. “I won’t let you make me fail my Prince again!”
Trixie held up her hooves, laughing in glee as she saw Twilight powering up. Her own hooves glowed, the glow spreading from her to each of the other heroes in turn. More to their own surprise than not, each suddenly felt a very real energy flood through them, each of their bodies aglow as they lifted up off of the ground. There was a burst of energy, colors dancing around them spectacularly as if to shield them from the attacking rainbow before… it rapidly collapsed inward, draining away and leaving them to tumble back to the ground.
No sooner had their own summoning failed than the energy of the Rainbow of Light showered down upon them, twisting and turning between them with burning power. For a moment it felt like their blood might boil, but the rainbow itself seemed reluctant in its assault, spiraling off for a moment as if to search for some more worthy enemy.
The heroes staggered back to their feet, fearing they only had an instant to react before it returned to finish them off.
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Zecora idly poured another pouch of herbs into her brew, going about her own business quite casually. She had not the least inkling that the world outside was in turmoil, and would have probably remained ignorant until her next visit to Ponyville. That was part of being a hermit, after all.
The zebra mare had lived here for some time, usually unbothered by the residents outside of the forest. Though many shook in fear at actually living in the Everfree Forest, she had become quite accustomed to its threats and most of them had learned not to bother the potion master during her time here. At this point, she had learned to anticipate anything that might happen, or so she thought.
Just as she was reaching for her next ingredient, there was a sudden explosion from the sky over her house, making her pause and look towards her window. She caught the tail end of the light from the explosion, and not one to panic easily she simply walked towards her window, pulling the curtain aside and peering out and up into the air.
To her horror, her eyes were met with a huge ball of swirling flame and black energy headed directly towards her home. For a moment, she was so frozen in confusion and shock that she didn’t notice the magical sound of a figure teleporting in behind her.
“’Sup,” asked Helios, apparently having decided to pay her a visit after having just tossed the ball of energy at her house to distract Luna.
Zecora turned herself around, starting to speak, but then blinking at the realization that an alicorn had just appeared in her home. She found herself incapable of speaking, let alone rhyming about this situation.
“Right!” Helios glanced around, “You’re the only one here? Good. Don’t mind me, I’m just rescuing you from… well me, just in case she fails to.” Not even Helios had been able to bring himself to actually smite a random bystander, but Luna thought he had so that was all that mattered.
With that, Helios reached out one hoof, placing it squarely on her forehead. His horn glowed with his energy briefly before both he and Zecora teleported away with a flash of light. In the next instant, Zecora found herself tumbling back to the ground in another area of the forest as Helios landed soundly beside her.
“What do you mean, saving me from you?” Zecora immediately demanded as she pulled herself back up to her hooves, “Was my home just blown into goo?”
“Possibly, but not necessarily,” Helios shook himself off a bit, cracking his neck a few times as if trying to relax, “You know, come to think of it, it would have been a lot more super-villainous of me to tell you that she was attacking your house and that I was saving you. Sorry, I’m still fairly new at this.”
“What are you talking about alicorn? Why do you barge in earning much scorn?” Zecora wasn’t showing much fear of the deity that had visited her after having been informed that he may have accidentally destroyed her house.
This caught him off guard, as things sometimes did, but also made him chuckle, “Are you doing that on purpose? Wow.”
His words were cut off by the piercing sound of an explosion nearby, which made Zecora jump, but Helios just sort of arched his eyebrow as if he wasn’t particularly surprised.
“-hold that thought,” Helios spoke once the explosion had died off, “I think my minions might need my assistance. Anyway I’m sure you can find your way home from here!”
And with that, Zecora was left with her mouth half-open, watching the strange alicorn abandon her in some random part of the Everfree Forest. She could probably find her way home from here, granted, but should she really do so without investigating first? Everything had happened so suddenly, that for a moment she found herself stuck where she was with nought but a stunned look on her face.
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For just a moment, Twilight Wish felt what it was like to be truly mad with power. She watched the energy from the Rainbow of Light lash through her enemies, heedless of her allies Surprise, Applejack, and Firefly who were all near enough to feel the energy themselves. So into the rush of the moment was she, that she didn’t even notice when said three allies glowed with Helios’ magical aura. Her three limp allies disappeared in a flash, one at a time as each was teleported away from the chaos. They were followed by the others that were out of the way, but equally incapacitated.
The heroes attempted to rise to their feet only to see Helios stepping up aside Twilight Wish, who was still oblivious to his even being present. There was no time to even process this information as the energy from the Rainbow slammed into them again, jolts of power running through each of their forms. One by one, each fell to the ground, shivering in pain. Trixie was the last to crumple, bravely getting off one last shot with her magic, a bolt of energy that whizzed across the clearing and sailed past Helios’ head as he casually leaned to one side.
Twilight Wish drew a deep breath, her hooves landing back on the ground as her form seemed to suddenly lose its energy. She took a deep breath, and a brief moment of horror flashed over her eyes as she looked upon the near smoldering forms of her enemies collapsing to the ground. Her horn glowed, power rushing across the clearing before her, and the rainbow was drawn back into the locket, which snapped tightly shut behind it.
For a moment it was as if all sound had been sucked out of the world around them, a deathly quiet falling upon the clearing.
“I don’t know if I should be impressed or give you a spanking,” Helios was the first to break the silence, reaching out a hoof to catch Twilight Wish as she collapsed to once side, “Got them all, then?”
“Y-yes,” Twilight stammered out, “All dead…” The pony’s glossy eyes forced themselves away from the smoldering, still forms laying across the clearing from them, then upwards to her master.
“Well then,” Helios nodded, sounding quite happy about the situation, “Let’s hope your allies aren’t all dead too, because I’m not joking about the spanking thing if any of them are.”
Helios’ horn glowed, his energy reaching out to grab hold of the explosive that was still in Blinkie’s limp hoof, bringing it over towards him. He then looked down to Twilight, still looking up at him, and blinked slowly at the expression of utter shock and dismay in her eyes. There was another long moment of silence between them before Helios turned back away from her and began to avoid her gaze.
“Just a little while longer, I promise,” Helios stated, quieter than usual. With that, his horn glowed as he, Twilight, and the explosive all disappeared, teleporting down into the underground ruins to the location of the portal.
Zecora arrived over the hill just in time to witness the disappearance of the alicorn and his minion, her eyes looking over the damaged area and immediately falling on the limp forms across the way from her. Gasping, she galloped across the clearing, leaning down to them. She didn’t recognize most of them, but she certainly knew Pinkie Pie, immediately moving over to her and leaning down, nosing at her prone body.
Much to her surprise, Pinkie spoke, immediately accusing her, “Stop shaking me you evil enchantress! You’re just here to laugh at me while I can’t move! Aren’t you?”
Zecora blinked, not certain if Pinkie was joking or was missing more of her marbles than usual, “What on Equestria are you talking about, Pinkie Pie? I thought for sure I’d just seen you all die!”
“It seems not,” Inkie’s voice was next in line, “It appears that she drew back the energy just short of finishing us, and paralyzed us instead. I think she may have actually saved us from being killed by Helios just now.”
“Talk about mixed signals!” Ditzy managed to get out, flopped on her back at an odd angle atop Gilda.
Gilda groaned herself, wings bent at an awfully uncomfortable-looking angle, “Oh yeah. And paralyzing us in a forest full of monsters that would as soon eat as look at us is soooo much better.”
“I like her,” Blinkie had to grin with the tone of her voice, since her face was rather limp, “I DON’T like him anymore though, he took my ‘splodie.”
Trixie didn’t have anything to say. She was just staring angrily at the ground, completely humiliated by her present situation; beaten up by a rainbow of all things.
Zecora was still confused, but certainly felt for their situation. She opened up her cloak, lined with small pouches along the inside. One hoof moved to unhitch one of said pouches, allowing a small amount of bluish-colored dust to gather on her hoof. Raising the hoof in the air, she blew the dust across the group, which swirled in a glowing mist about them for a few moments.
“This dust will make your movements return,” the zebra explained, “Then what has happened, I will wish to learn.”
“I still can’t move! This isn’t funny!” Pinkie Pie shouted impatiently, making Zecora peer at her with suspicion, as if the zebra wasn’t certain that it was really Pinkie.
“It probably takes some time.” Inkie observed.
“Trixie does not find this amusing,” Trixie finally spoke up, barely able to twitch her head over to take a look at her rescuer, “If Trixie did not feel so numb, she would outline the full details of her amazing plan for vengeance.”
There wasn’t much more time for words as there was a dull rumbling from beneath the ground, making them all go silent again. The ground suddenly lurched, a huge dust cloud forming as the clearing sank nearly two stories in depth, and it seemed the heroes would be doomed to swallowing by the earth as the ground sank, possibly to be covered by debris in their still somewhat immobile state.
However, they found themselves not falling at all, a soft glow surrounding the group as the ground fell out from beneath them. Even Zecora found herself surrounded by the deep purple glow of somepony’s telekinesis magic. It wasn’t long before the group realized who had them, their forms slowly pulled towards the edge of the newly formed crater to settle back on the ground.
Princess Luna stood on the edge of the newly-formed sinkhole, looking as if she was barely able to keep herself standing. Yet she still managed to weakly pull the forms of the still recovering heroes over to the edge with her, settling them down on the ground, shortly before collapsing herself.
Zecora leaned down into a bow as soon as her hooves were placed back on the ground, but was up on her hooves almost immediately to rush over to catch the Princess as she finally collapsed under the weight of her own exhaustion. There was certainly a lot to be explained now.
“Princess Luna, are you all right?” Zecora helped the princess fall down in a manner that was at least somewhat dignified, allowing her to rest, “What has made you such a sight?”
“Canterlot,” Luna managed to huff out quietly, barely able to speak, “Thou must take us all back to Canterlot.” And with that, the Princess closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and seeming to resolve herself to resting.
The heroes were meanwhile rising on their own, the cure slowly taking its effect on them. There was a long moment wherein they all exchanged glances, then all eyes went to Luna once again.
“So it seems we are going to Canterlot,” Inkie calmly stated.
“Is that a good idea?” Blinkie wasn’t sure if anypony knew about her shoving a stick of dynamite down Princess Celestia’s throat, after all, "Anyway, someone at least see if we can find Pinkie's canon. I think it might be useful later."
“In Canterlot, the Great and Powerful Trixie will finally be received as a hero,” Trixie’s eyes practically glowed with the visions in her head.
“Wouldn’t we have had to do something was actually heroic for that to happen?” Gilda pointed out.
“It feels weird though,” Ditzy commented, floating back into the air and beginning her trademark air rolling once again, “Like something is missing.”
“It’s like someone’s writing a story about us and forgot the cliffhanger,” Pinkie Pie snapped angrily at Ditzy. “I hate cliffhangers!”